Retention Management controls what happens when a customer tries to cancel or pause a subscription in the customer portal. You can let them go straight away, show an offer that fits their reason for leaving, or ask them to contact you. The Overview tab shows how many customers your offers keep.
Where to find it
In Appstle Subscriptions, go to More > Retention Management. You can also open it from More actions on the Subscriptions page. The page has five tabs:
Overview: how your offers are performing. It's covered below.
Cancellation: what customers see when they cancel. See Cancellations and retention offers.
Pause: what customers see when they pause. See Pausing and pause offers.
Flows: a different cancel experience for specific groups of subscribers. See Targeted cancellation flows.
Advanced Configuration: whether customers can cancel, pause or resume at all, and related rules. See Advanced Configuration.
At the top of the page, Watch guide opens a short video about the tab you're on, and Activity Logs shows the history of changes to your cancellation and pause reasons, offers and flows.
How the pieces fit together
The Cancellation tab is your default cancel experience. Every customer gets it, unless a targeted flow applies to them.
Targeted flows give a specific group of subscribers their own cancel experience, such as a bigger discount for long-time subscribers. While a targeted flow is published, the Cancellation tab is read-only.
The Pause tab is separate. It controls what happens when customers click Pause, and flows don't change it.
Advanced Configuration decides whether customers can cancel, pause or resume at all. If the cancel button is turned off there, no cancel experience runs.
Get started
In Advanced Configuration, check that the cancel and pause buttons are turned on. They're on for new stores.
On the Cancellation tab, choose Retention offers under Step 1.
Add your reasons and offers. If you have no reasons yet, Quick start adds three common reasons with ready-made offers.
Under Step 3, set Discount Duration so discount offers end when you want them to.
Use Check on live to open the real cancel window for a test customer. What you do there is real, so don't use a real customer.
Set up the Pause tab the same way if you want offers when customers pause.
Come back to the Overview tab once customers start cancelling.
The Overview tab
Retention performance shows results for the date range you pick: Last 30 days, Last 90 days, Last 12 months or All time. It starts at Last 90 days. A Needs setup badge shows until a cancel or pause save flow is on and at least one reason has an offer.
The numbers
Outcomes recorded: how many times a customer finished the cancel or pause window in the date range, by cancelling, pausing or accepting an offer.
Saves: how many of those outcomes were accepted offers on subscriptions that haven't been cancelled since.
Save rate: Saves divided by Outcomes recorded.
Keep in mind:
An outcome is only recorded when the customer finishes. If they close the window without doing anything, nothing is recorded.
Pausing counts too. A customer who pauses without accepting an offer is an outcome but not a save, while an accepted Pause Subscription offer is a save.
If a saved customer cancels later, that save stops counting as a save.
The numbers count outcomes, not people, so one customer can count more than once.
Custom instructions record nothing, because customers can't cancel there.
Flow readiness
Cancellation save flow: On when the Cancellation tab uses Retention offers or a published flow has reasons.
Pause save flow: On when the Pause tab uses Retention offers.
Reasons with offers: how many of your active reasons have an offer.
Customer portal actions: Available when customers can cancel or pause, based on Advanced Configuration.
Edit save flow opens the Cancellation tab.
What to improve next
Three suggestions based on your results:
Your most common reason, once at least 5 outcomes have a reason and one reason clearly leads.
A reason with a low save rate, under 20% after at least 3 outcomes. If there isn't one, your strongest offer so far.
How many of your reasons have no offer.
Customers who continued cancelling shows the outcomes that weren't saves. It includes customers who paused without accepting an offer.
Offer performance
This table has a row for each reason on the Cancellation and Pause tabs and in your published flows:
Offer: the reason's first offer.
Delivered: outcomes recorded for that reason.
Accepted: saves for that reason. "via fallback offer" shows how many came from the second offer.
Declined: outcomes for that reason that weren't saves.
Save rate and Last activity.
A Deleted badge marks results that don't match a current reason. For example, a reason you renamed or removed, a reason from an archived flow, feedback typed when no reason was chosen, or a cancellation with no reason at all, such as a Direct cancellation, shown as "Reason not captured". The Overview doesn't split results by flow.
Where customers see it
The classic customer portal supports everything on this page. Shopify's new customer accounts support the Cancellation, Pause and Advanced Configuration settings, including retention offers and second offers, but not targeted flows. Customers there always get the Cancellation tab's experience. A few things also work differently in new customer accounts:
Custom instructions are shown as plain text.
The date a paused subscription restarts isn't shown.
With Let customers pick a used discount reason again turned on, choosing that reason again from the subscription page cancels the subscription straight away.
Which plans include what
All plans: the Overview tab, Advanced Configuration, and direct cancelling and pausing.
Business, Business Premium, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus: Retention offers and Custom instructions for cancelling, and Retention offers for pausing.
Business Premium, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus: targeted cancellation flows.
To compare plans, go to Billing.
Good to know
Some settings in other places also affect cancelling and pausing, such as your plan's Cancellation Policy and the Subscription Timing Restrictions in Customer Portal settings. See Advanced Configuration.
Other text in the cancel and pause windows, such as field labels and the message after cancelling, is in your customer portal labels.
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Need help?
Email us at support@appstle.com or message us from the chat in the app.